Engineering biosynthesis of the anticancer alkaloid noscapine in yeast

Abstract

Noscapine is a potential anticancer drug that is traditionally isolated from the opium poppy Papaver somniferum. Here, Li and Smolke reconstitute the noscapine gene cluster in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, to achieve the microbial production of noscapine and related pathway intermediates, and provide new insights into the biosynthesis of noscapine.